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Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman is a criminal lawyer easily found in the Albuquerque yellow pages. His made up last name is a play on words to better attract clients, "its all good man" becomes "Saul Goodman". He is best known for his over-the-top late-night television commercials, where he advertises under the tagline “Better call Saul!” and claims "I fight for YOU, Albuquerque!" With a repetoire that includes small-time drug busts, fraudulent insurance claims, fat people class actions, you name it, he has a highly stylized office in a cheap strip mall. Due to his overbearing manner, he might seem disreputable to police and certain other lawyers. Despite his fantasticaly shady appearance Saul is indeed a highly competent extra-legal operator, adept at sniffing out legal loopholes and able to negotiate cherry deals on the behalf of his clients. He has a strong familiarity with the criminal trade and has connections to some of its most influential distributors like Gus Fring. He also employs the services of a veteran private investigator named Mike, who respects Saul for just what he is, executes often illegal commands from Saul and Gus such as cleaning up crime scenes and bugging homes. Character history Saul has had numerous wives in the past. He has a stepfather, who at one point he caught sleeping with one of his wives. He has also developed a relatonship with his secterary A city boy, his real surname is McGill, but he has changed it as he claims his clients feel more comfortable with a Jewish lawyer (“a pipe-hitting member of the tribe,” as he puts it). Saul is of Irish descent. Season 2 Following Badger's arrest for selling meth, Walt and Jesse contacted Saul for legal representation, as Jesse knew him from successfully defending Emilio twice. Walt, posing as Badger’s uncle "Mr Mayhew", hired him to keep Badger out of prison. Unfortunately, while meeting Badger at the police station he caught a glimpse of Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez, and deducing they were interested in his client, made a deal with the DEA for Badger to testify against his dealer “Heisenberg.” Walt, recognizing the danger, offered Saul $10,000 to keep Badger from talking to the DEA, but Saul refused, claiming to be “morally outraged.” Walt and Jesse then took more desperate measures, kidnapping Saul and taking him to the desert to threaten him into keeping Badger from testifying. However, Saul quickly points out it would make more sense to kill Badger in prison, but Walt and Jesse refuse this solution. Identifying “Mr. Mayhew” from Walt’s hacking cough, he quickly offered to be their lawyer, accepting payment of six dollars on the spot for attorney-client confidentiality. To throw the DEA off Walt and Jesse’s trail, Saul proposes the use of James Edward Kikely (aka Jimmy “In-and-Out”), a man who fits Heisenberg’s description and who is willing to go to prison for money. In exchange for $80,000 - $50,000 of which Saul takes as a finder’s fee – and a decoy pound of meth, Saul has Badger cooperate with the authorities and a sting operation leads to Jimmy’s arrest. With his private investigator figuring out who Walt is in an hour, Saul – intrigued by the DEA’s interest in Walt’s product – makes an offer to Walt to become his legal counsel, in the same vein as Tom Hagen from “The Godfather.” Walt accepts the offer, obtaining Saul’s expertise. Season 3 Following the success of the large sale to Gus – which leads to Saul buying better suits and a Bluetooth headset – Saul pushes Walt to take Gus’s lucrative offer to continue cooking. He also accepts a job from Jesse, using Jesse’s half of the earnings to purchase his aunt’s house at a dramatically lowered price – strong-arming Jesse’s parents and attorney with a potential lawsuit over the undisclosed meth lab Jesse was running out of the basement. After Walt reveals Skyler has threatened to expose him, Saul hires Mike to bug the White house as insurance. Forced to leave early when Walt comes home, Mike witnesses the Cousins entering with an axe, and quickly places a call to Gus to call them off. Per Gus’s direction, Saul has not been informed of this threat to Walt . Mike later brings Walt to Saul after Walt creates a disturbance at Skyler’s office, and attempts to talk Walt into cooking meth again Admitting that he bugged Walt’s house and making an off-color comment about Skyler, Saul is attacked and subsequently fired by Walt. Furious, Saul shuts down the laundering of Walt’s drug money. Jesse then approaches Saul with two bags of meth he has cooked himself using Walt’s procedure, and asks to set up a deal. He meets Victor under a bridge to make the exchange, only to see he has been given half of the money – the other half went to Walt . Saul sets up an intervention between Walt and Jesse offering to give Walt a percentage of Jesse’s future deals. Walt returns Jesse’s half of the first deal, coldly informing both of them that he has now accepted Gus’s offer and will be cutting Jesse out of the business. Quickly dumping Jesse in favor of the much higher profits Walt can produce, Saul is once again hired to launder money for Walt – this time for a dramatically reduced payment of five percent . When Hank successfully deduces the existence of the RV, Walt calls Saul in a panic. Saul is at a loss, and scolds him for not having a "self-destruct" mechanism like the Starship Enterprise. After Hank locates the RV with Walt and Jesse trapped inside, Walt calls Saul for assistance. Saul has his secretary Francesca masquerade as a law enforcement official to make Hank believe his wife has been severely injured in a car accident. Saul appears regretful of his part in the cruel ruse and discards the phone used to make the call, while Francesca tells him she should be paid more for this sort of work. Season 4 Ever since Jesse murdered Gale at the end of Season Three, Saul has been shown at a minimum. In episode one, it is shown that he has locked up his offices and has a security guard at the door. Saul starts scanning his offices for bugs madly and shows increased paranoia. A new over-the-top commercial of his can be seen, revolving around the airplane crash. He helps Skyler purchase the Car Wash from Bogdan and convince Ted Beneke to pay his back taxes, with the help of his associates Huell and Kuby. Trivia *Saul's name is a play on words for the slang expression "'s'all good, man," meaning everything is all right. *Saul is a graduate of the University of American Samoa with an MA in political science. *Drives a white Cadillac with a license plate that reads, "LWYR UP." *A real telephone number, (505) 503-4455 based in Albuquerque, New Mexico was created for Saul's law firm and when called it consists of Saul on an automated switchboard system with various options. It is made clear on the Better Call Saul website (www.bettercallsaul.com) and on the Breaking Bad Facebook page that this telephone number is a long distance telephone call and not toll-free. *His office at the strip mall is garishly decorated with wall-sized images of the U.S. Constitution, fake plaster columns invoking images of stately Washington DC federal buildings, and an inflatable Statue of Liberty on the roof to attract customers. es:Saul Goodman Category:Breaking Bad characters